the mind of a chef - noodle

While The Mind of a Chef premiered three years ago and I had made a note to watch episode one “Noodle" almost two years ago, I FINALLY got around to it and have linked/recapped it below. If you’ve got a free 23 minutes, it’s a great primer on ramen featuring Momofuku’s David Chang (who earlier this year decried the advent of peak ramen). The series itself - narrated by none other than Anthony Bourdain - follows a notable chef (or chefs) for the season as he/she/they focus on one central theme per episode, investigating the topic from various angles such as: cooking, travel, science, and history.
If you haven’t got the time to spare, these were my highlights:
- Ramen varies by region: (in Yokohama it’s fatty and salty, Hakodate broth is pork and/or chicken-based, Sapporo broth is usually miso, and the noodles from Kitakata are flat)
- Alkalinity (opposite of acidity) is what gives ramen its signature yellow color and firmness, allowing it to hold its form in hot liquid
- Speaking of holding its form, Momofuku Ando — beloved inventor of instant noodles — figured out that by deep frying cooked noodles he could instantly dehydrate them, allowing the noodles to be packaged and mass produced